Looking for a shred of human decency from the boy-child 47th president of the USA is as futile as searching for the bucket of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Capital punishment is a moral travesty,
Aries54,
In case of conviction on 100% proof the travesty of murder is actually many times worse !

Only in rare circumstances should capital punishment occur - deliberate cold blooded murder and terrorism where innocent lives are lost. An eye for an eye! But I don't support the death penalty under any other circumstances, not even for drug trafficking where lives are lost as an indirect consequence of the illegal activity.

The author focuses on three very good reasons why the death penalty in the USA is barbaric – the fact it does not act as a deterrence; the relatively high rates of wrongful or questionable convictions, meaning some innocents are executed; and the discrepancies in people who are likely to be sentenced to death depending on the race of the murderer and their victim.

I’d add a fourth – the death penalty is immoral in and of itself, even if the law was totally colour blind and death sentences imposed in cases where there was no possibility of wrongful conviction. We do not kill prisoners for the same reason we do not torture them, even if torture would act as a deterrence or yield useful information.

Of the 40 countries classified as developed, only four use the death penalty - the USA, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. And the USA is one of the world’s most prolific state-sanctioned killers, in the company of China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Iraq. Not a record to be proud of.

Terrorism and blowing, blowing people to bits, cutting off their heads are all “moral failures”.

But capital punishment is not really a punishment. All over in a flash. Solitary confinement until death is much better.

not even for drug trafficking where lives are lost as an indirect consequence of the illegal activity.
Bernie Masters,
My view on that is that any overdose should be put at the end of the Ambulance queue !

I think that it would have been nicer to have Quentin Tarantino's alternative history instead of the Sharon Tate murders. I did have a work colleague who asked if the film was historically accurate.

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Dear Kimberlee (the author),

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Capital punishment, as it continues to be carried out in many countries today, is often a sordid, degrading, humiliating, stressful, painful and inhumane process. This form of capital punishment should be totally abolished worldwide, without the slightest shadow of a doubt.

It belongs to another age. It is a barbaric concept, which finds its roots in the development of retributive justice to the detriment of restorative justice that preceded it. Retributive or punitive justice was largely favoured and influenced by the Abrahamic religions which permeated and denatured justice, deflecting it away from its primal objective of pacification and reconciliation and reorienting it towards the pursuit of vengeance, retribution and punishment: "Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot”.

Justice is simply the rightful enforcement of the terms and conditions of the social contract to which we all voluntarily subscribe through the democratic process, and not just some cruel form of punishment.

Intentional murder is an act by which the murderer clearly demonstrates his refusal to recognise and respect life as a fundamental right of every human being, including himself. By his rejection of the right to life of his victim, he forfeits his own right to life as well.

Consequently, we should take inspiration from nature which has equipped us with an immune system to eliminate invasive lethal microorganisms. Society should equip itself with a similar immune system to eliminate human beings who commit atrocious crimes against other human beings – not just during war, but also in times of peace.

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However, in doing so we should not employ the barbarous methods of capital punishment. The right to terminate the life of a convicted criminal is not the right to make him suffer. When death is the conclusion of a deliberate, carefully reasoned decision on the part of a court of justice, that decision should be implemented with a maximum of humanity and as little pain, stress and suffering as modern science can allow. The best possible conditions of euthanasia (from the Greek eu, “good” and thanatos, “death”) should be provided in all instances.

That said, euthanasia of convicted criminals must necessarily be carried out in conditions of utmost security, both for themselves and others. They should receive appropriate psychological assistance and sedation where necessary in order to prepare them for an end of life that most would probably have difficulty accepting. Few could be expected to conduct themselves with the same calm, courage and dignity as that of Socrates, placed in a similar situation in 399 BC when he was sentenced to death by drinking an obnoxious mixture containing poison hemlock.

I consider that criminal court decisions of forfeiture of life should be limited to major crimes such as child murder, serial killing, torture murder, rape murder, mass murder, terrorism, and premeditated murder that is carefully planned and executed. Indications are that there is a solid basis of continuous robust public support in most countries for the application of the death penalty, as it is currently understood, for these particularly atrocious, cold-blooded crimes.

No doubt, this robust public support includes many indomitable sadists who would have difficulty accepting that the death penalty be replaced by euthanasia defined as “a peaceful and painless death, preferably in a warm, cosy environment” which corresponds to my concept of justice.

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For those who may be interested …

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PHAGOCYTES

The killing of bacteria in human body parts is a critical function of phagocytes, which are cells that can ingest and destroy microbes.

Phagocytes can kill bacteria either inside the phagocyte (intracellular killing) or outside of the phagocyte (extracellular killing). One mechanism of intracellular killing involves a protein that acts like a detergent to kill bacteria inside human cells. This protein, called LAP, is activated when microbes like Salmonella infect human cells.

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All over in a flash
ttbn,
Yes, it can be seen as an easy way out of punishment. But as everyone would agree, it can only be done when proof of guilt is absolute.
Confinement is punishment, death penalty is disposing of a problem ! In far too many cases the killer is not even the instigator of a situation leading to taking a life. In most cases it's due to pressures from others that lead people to snap ! Murder is obviously planned ! These people should be locked up & not be discouraged from doing away with themselves !